Has anyone got any tips on installing DCC decoders or Soundtraxx decoders in a Bowser steam engine? How can you isolate the motor from the frame? I was thinking of using a Helix Humper can motor assy too but it looks like it would be even harder to isolate than the stock motor.
Thanks,
Roger
Bowser sells a direct replacement motor that is isolated. Check on the Bowser wb site, I think it talks about it there.
–Randy
Roger
Have you looked at the Northwest Short Line motors? They list the motor’s dimentions.
If the existing motor is an open frame type held to the frame with a metal machine threaded bolt, you should be able to isolate it by placing electrical tape between the motor and frame and using a nylon screw instead of the metal one.
Cacole,
I always worry about nylon screws and metal over time. If they seize up, they’ll snap in nothing flat. (And they’re not much fun to extract either.) Would a nylon washer do the trick instead?
Tom
Yes, you could drill out the hole in the frame and use a shouldered nylon washer in the enlarged hole to keep the screw from touching the frame, but that would not be any better, in my opinion, than using a nylon screw.
You could also use Scotch double-stick foam instead of a screw, but I don’t know if this stuff would dry out or deteriorate over time and allow the motor to work loose.
See: http://www.bowser-trains.com/ho_dcc.php
It is very well covered in the above link. The solutions Bowser offers are relatively inexpensive, and robust. $14.98 plus S&H exchange for a new DCC ready motor is a great bargin.
Sorry Tom, no.
I checked out the Bowser insolated DC-71 motor. That may cure the shorting problem but I thought open frame motors wouldn’t work with DCC???
If you replace the motor attach screw with a nylon one isn’t the motor still making contact through the shaft & gear touching the drive gear on the axle???
Thanks,
Roger
Open frame motors work FINE with DCC. Olderones may have too high a stall current to work with smaller decoders, but thre’s no reason an open frame motor wouldn’t work with DCC.
There are two cases where the motor is critical in DCC. First, coreless motors, like the Micro-Mo, require a decoder with a high-frequency drive (“supersonic”), otherwise it will be damaged. Second, no matter what type of motor, it MUST be isolated from the chassis. Technically it only has to be isolated from the rail pickups, but if one side of the motor is connected to the loco chassis even though it’s isolated from the rails, in a derailment a wheel could contact the track and the frame, leading to letting all the magic smoke out of the decoder. So it’s best if the motor is completely isolated from the chassis.
The big advantage to having a DCC system with a dedicated program track connection is that the program track is current limited. If you made a mistake in wiring things and put it on the programming track first, it will probably not blow the decoder. If you put a mis-wired loco on the main track, you don’t stand a chance.
–Randy